Does the difference in the body of various coffees matter?
Does the difference in the body of various coffees matter? The answer may seem obvious, but bear with me.
Let’s say you drink only specialty-grade coffee. How much does body vary from one bean to another? Not much, I would posit. Natural variation in body among different coffees is modest, but the ability to change body through roasting and brewing is much greater.
I believe that most perceived differences in body at the cupping table are due to not meticulously weighing both the ground coffee as well as the water used in cupping. While some modern green buyers and roasters weigh their cupping water, that is not a universal practice, and it was rarely if ever practiced until about fifteen years ago.
What is body?
Body is the tactile sensation of coffee on the tongue, produced by a combination of viscosity and insoluble particles. Body is related to mouthfeel, but most authorities attribute body primarily to insoluble particles, and mouthfeel to the presence of oils. Mouthfeel relates to the sensation of “butteriness” produced by suspended oils in coffee. Interestingly, body does not seem correlated with the proportion of fines various coffees produce when ground.
Body is indirectly related to brew strength as measured by TDS. I say indirectly because TDS is a measurement exclusively of dissolved particles, and body is produced by insolubles. But generally speaking, for a given brew method, increases in TDS correlate with increases in body. TDS is a measure of density, and a denser brew produced by the same method will typically have more body.
How to influence body in coffee
There are four ways I can think of to influence the amount of body in brewed coffee:
choice of green coffee
roast level and development
brewing method and filtration
brewing ratio
Choice of green coffee
The choice of green coffee probably has the least capacity to affect body. Recently I was talking about body with Ryan Brown, cofounder of Facsimile Coffee. Ryan noted that body has probably never been a decisive factor him when buying green coffee. That remark struck me and sparked my interest in writing this post.
While coffee origin and processing can affect body, the choice of origin or processing has less impact on body in the cup than do the following factors.
Roasting and body
Roast level and development, as well as the ratio of conduction to convection used in roasting influence body. Darker roasting, greater development, and coffee roasted with more conduction have the capacity to increase body. Perhaps few of us would choose to roast darker simply to increase body, but learning to increase roast development without roasting darker can be a useful tool for manipulating body as well as flavor.
Brewing method and filtration
The choice of brewing method, and especially filtration, have the greatest capacity to influence body. Immersion brews and other unfiltered brews produce the most body. Percolation methods in which the coffee bed acts as a form of filtration to trap fine particles produce less body. Percolation methods using filters with low porosity and high capacity to trap fines produce the least body.
Brewing ratio and strength
Increasing the ratio of grounds to water and/or increasing brew strength (density), all else being equal, will increase body.
The bottom line
Returning to the original question, it seems reasonable to ignore or discount body as a factor when choosing green coffee. Small changes in brewing method, recipe, and filtration have the capacity to alter body far more than one could achieve by choosing different green coffee.
Interested in improving your cupping skills while enjoying spectacular green roasted flawlessly?
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